


You Need to Put Those Back

by singingwithoutwords



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Supernatural Elements, that's it that's the plot idk what to tell you guys, tony accidentally summons a demon and immediately adopts him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 15:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18967600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singingwithoutwords/pseuds/singingwithoutwords
Summary: Tony finds a couple spooky silver chalices in a cabin and, like the dumb white boy he is, decides they're his new favorite wineglasses.  It goes about how you'd expect, but not nearly as bad as it could have.[Tony Stark Bingo square K3 | au:demons/angels]





	You Need to Put Those Back

**Author's Note:**

> Partially inspired by [this post](https://singingwithoutwords.tumblr.com/post/184215864023/found-two-silver-chalices-in-a-velvet-box-in-this) on tumblr.
> 
> I don't even know how Eclipse got out of the OC closet, but I liked this too much to scrap it. It's my AO3 and I do what I want, but I hope y'all like it, anyway.
> 
> ( **warning:** There are some very oblique references to dubcon/noncon in the OC's backstory, but nothing is actually explored, and nothing happens during the story.)

“Tony, why is there a big-ass cup of wine sitting on the counter?” Rhodey asked, in a way that suggested no matter what the answer was, he was already tired of it.

“It’s a chalice,” Tony corrected, stepping into the kitchen with the chalice’s twin in his hand.  “I found ‘em in a box in the back of the storage shed at that cabin Pepper forced me to inhabit for a week, which was mistakenly labeled a vacation.  That one was Obi’s, you can finish it if you want.”

Rhodey stared at the chalice of wine in Tony’s hand, then at the one on the counter, then back, and sighed.  “Tony,” he said, sounding even more done than he had in his previous sentence, “you need to put those back.”

“Why?” Tony asked, taking a sip of wine while Rhodey just kept staring.

“Because this is how people get cursed, Tony,” Rhodey said.  “This is proper horror movie protagonist stupidity. This is ‘reading out loud from the Book of the Dead in the middle of a tomb’ dumb.”

“It’s just a couple chalices,” Tony protested.  “And I like them. They’re mine now.”

“Tony.”

“What?  It’s not like I’m gonna fill them with blood and summon a demon or something.  They’re just cups.”

“Tony, listen to me,” Rhodey insisted.  “ _You need to put those back._ ”

“Actually,” another voice interrupted, “it’s a bit too late for that.”

The person at the counter sampling the second chalice of wine was small, even petite, with inky black hair and red-glowing eyes, and an adorable pair of small black feathered wings sprouting from his back.  He looked to be in his late teens or very early twenties, and was dressed in a whole lot of silver-and-red jewelry and a black robe that left most of his chest visible. He paused a moment, then made a face, dumping the rest of the wine into the sink.

“Blech- backwash,” he remarked, setting the chalice back down.  “I can see why everyone else was resisting.”

“What?” Tony asked, while his mind struggled to find some logical explanation for what was happening.

“The cups were my grandfather’s,” the presumable demon said, hopping up on the counter.  “He gave them to a human friend as a way to meet up without having to go through a showy summoning ritual.  Unfortunately, they’re tied to Grandfather’s blood, and therefore everyone of his direct bloodline, so here I am.  Am I correct in assuming this was an accident?”

Tony nodded.  “Sorry about that,”

“Don’t be,” the demon said cheerfully.  “I’ve never actually been to Earth before; my siblings enjoy playing with humans too much.”

“I guess I’m a bit too old for them?”

The demon laughed.  “Don’t be silly- age is just a number.  From the acid he left behind, I’d bet the man who actually had this cup was just too corrupt to interest them.”

“Obi’s not corrupt,” Tony protested.

The demon just looked at him for a moment, then turned to Rhodey.  “He’s precious,” he remarked. “It must be so hard keeping him in one piece.”

Rhodey groaned.  “I’m way too tired to be dealing with this,” he said.  “I’ve had zero hours of sleep in the past two days and I just flew nonstop from Japan and then drove my ass here from the airport.  If I go take a nap, are you going to eat him?”

“Dread One, no,” the demon assured him, laughing.  “He’s perfectly safe from me. If it’ll make you feel better, I won’t even try to sleep with him.”

“Good.” Rhodey turned, kissing Tony on the cheek.  “I’m going to bed. Don’t summon anymore demons.”

“Yes, dear,” Tony promised.

 

* * *

 

When Rhodey woke up the next morning, there was no sign that Tony had ever made it to bed.  Rhodey groaned, dragging himself through getting shaved and dressed, then wandered downstairs.

Tony was sitting on the couch in the living room with their spooky little guest sprawled on top of him.  Tony’s attention was mainly on the transparent screens floating in the air off to the side, and the demon was asleep.

Rhodey sighed.  Tony looked up, smiling.  “Morning, Rhodey Bear,” he said.  “By the way, we’re dads now.”

“Tony, no.”

“Tony, yes.”

“Tony, you can’t adopt a demon.”

“There’s no law against it,” Tony pointed out, still smiling.

“Because no one believes demons exist,” Rhodey replied, wondering why he had to fall for the only white boy he’d ever met with _negative_ self-preservation instincts.

“Still no law against it,” Tony said relentlessly.  “Rhodey, you don’t understand, he literally lives in Hell, and he has to pretend to be an idiot so no one assassinates him because he’s too weak to actually defend himself.  We can’t make him go back.”

“Tony...”

“No, we literally can’t.  Technically he was never summoned, so he can’t be banished.  If I don’t adopt him, he’ll just wander off and something bad will happen to him, and then I’ll feel responsible, you know I will.”

“Why do I love you?” Rhodey demanded, already aware he was going to losing this argument but not quite willing to admit defeat yet.

“Because my ass qualifies as a World Wonder?”

The demon snorted into Tony’s shirt.  “You two are adorable,” he commented, sitting up with a yawn.  “Am _I_ allowed to call you Rhodey Bear, or would you prefer ‘daddy’?”

“Okay, that- don’t do that.  I don’t care how old you actually are, you _look_ fifteen, and- no.  Call me Rhodey and nothing else.”

The demon laughed.  “You humans are so silly.”

“How old _are_ you, anyway?” Tony asked curiously.  “We never got around to that last night.”

“Nineteen.”

“Okay, so you’re of dating age.  I better have Pepper put together some sort of pamphlet and write a good shovel monologue.  Welcome to the family, Eclipse.”

 

* * *

 

Having Eclipse around presented some difficulties.  While apparently most demons were capable of casting a glamour that let them pass for human, Eclipse wasn’t.  He also couldn’t fly, and had proved the extent of his physical strength by being traunced at arm-wrestling by Pepper.  It quickly became obvious that he was so blatantly sexual because that was the only way he’d been able to survive to nineteen in the first place.

That, and the fact that he was incredibly smart and deadly with a throwing knife.

Since Eclipse’s wings were pretty much impossible to hide without being uncomfortable at best and painful at worst, he spent most of his time holed up in the Malibu house, doing his best not to flirt with anyone, watching Tony work with utter fascination, and making his dislike of Obi very plain whenever the man wasn’t around (when he was, even people who knew Eclipse hated him couldn’t tell).

Then Tony went missing.

Eclipse couldn’t do much to help with the search, not from Earth, and he was reluctant to return to Hell; time moved different there, and he had no way of knowing how long he’d be gone, assuming he was ever allowed back, and Rhodey had gotten fond of the kid, so he didn’t push him on it.

By the time they hit the one-month mark, though, Eclipse was willing to reconsider.  Five weeks after Tony’s disappearance, he made the decision to chance it.

Seven weeks after that, Rhodey found his boyfriend and adopted son in the middle of the Afghani desert, injured and horribly sunburnt but alive.

Eclipse claimed it had taken him months to convince his father to send him back to Earth.  Unfortunately, sending him to Tony’s location had landed him right in the Ten Rings’ hands, which hadn’t gone well, but at least they’d both made it out alive.  There’d been a third prisoner who hadn’t been so lucky.

It was impossible to hide Eclipse or his wings from the rest of the rescue squad, but he and Tony were both quick thinkers, and they’d already cooked up a cover story.  Eclipse was now an unlucky mutant who’d been captured young and kept as a sick sort of pet, which also nicely explained his lack of real-world knowledge or experience and his sometimes horrifying comments about sex.

It also meant totally legal adoption was now on the table, and maybe that was what pushed Obi over the edge.

 

* * *

 

The device he used to paralyse Tony didn’t work on Eclipse.  Unfortunately, Obi didn’t need that to overpower him, so Eclipse pulled his trump card: he screamed for his mom.

Before Obi had finished laughing at him, he felt the point of a very sharp blade come to rest against the back of his head.

“Release my son.  Now.”

The demon who’d appeared in the middle of the living room actually looked like a demon.  She was at the very least eight feet tall, not including the three sets of horns sprouting from her head or her impressively large black membrane wings.  She was made entirely of muscle, dressed in pitch-black armor accented with blood-red jewels. Her eyes were blank fields of burning sulfur yellow.

She did not look happy.

What followed was short and ugly and best not described, but it ended with Obadiah Stane dead, which was the important part.

The demon cleaned and sheather her sword, staring impassively down at Tony as Eclipse helped him sit up properly and supported him while the paralysis wore off.

“He’s handsome,” she remarked after a moment.  “A little small.”

Eclipse snorted.  “All humans are a little small to you, Mom,” he replied.  “Tony, this is my mom, Queen Redblade. She’s kind of commander of Hell’s standing army.”

“Am I about to be killed?” Tony asked faintly.

“Of course not,” the _queen of Hell_ assured him, smiling.  It looked surprisingly impish on her.  He didn’t know if that was good or not.  “Eclipse would never forgive me.”

“Mom loves me to pieces,” Eclipse informed him.  “I’m her favorite.”

“Do I have to fight her to keep you?  I will. It’ll be pathetic -cringey even -but I’ll do it.”

Queen Redblade laughed.  “I see why you like him so,” she said to Eclipse.  “You have my blessing to remain.”

Eclipse squealed, abandoning Tony on the couch to throw himself at his mom.  It looked like a kitten clinging to a Rottweiler, and Tony couldn’t help but laugh.  Eclipse gave him a knowing look and wiggled back to the floor.

“You’d better head back before someone notices you,” he said.  “Give my love to Dad. Watch out for Starfrost.”

Redblade nodded once and vanished, thoughtfully taking Obi’s mangled corpse with her.

“She’ll dump his body in a way that can’t be traced back to you,” Eclipse promised.  “Sorry she had to rescue and run, but there’s kind of a treaty she sort of violated by technically coming to Earth without being summoned.  You understand.”

“Of course,” Tony said.  “I imagine she’s not going to be dropping by unannounced much?”

“Come on- let’s go make sure JARVIS is okay,” Eclipse suggested, helping Tony to his feet.  “Worry about sharing custody later.”

Tony nodded agreeably, then asked, “So is your dad Satan?”

Eclipse laughed, shaking his head.  “Of course not,” he said. “Satan’s much further back in the family tree.  My great-great-great-grandfather at least.”

Tony wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.  He just knew that apparently the church had had it all wrong when it came to Hell, and that was hilarious.

He’d process Obi’s betrayal properly later; for now, he just leaned on his son and laughed.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Iron Demon Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19215886) by [LilithPan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilithPan/pseuds/LilithPan)




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